In a church talk late last year I had an assignment to share something from fall 2021 general conference that particularly touched me. (Yes, I know this is now 2022. I originally wrote this entry a year ago and I’m just now getting it uploaded.) God speaks in all languages. By languages I don’t just mean English or Spanish. I also mean the languages of our thought process. For example, some think in the language of the arts, or of administration, or of science, or of any of the many ‘ologies’ of study. Each discipline of thought has its own language and way of understanding. So too is the language of the gospel, but truth shows up in each of these may disciplines. God speaks to me in several languages, but one of the languages he uses at times is math. The talk by Elder Clark G. Gilbert is an obvious choice as he used math explicitly in his talk about “The Parable of the Slope”. As true principles turn up over and over again in every discipline, I managed to see math in other talks at conference as well. Since we all think in different languages I believe that is why we have been encouraged to “liken the scriptures unto ourselves.”
The talk I referred to in my talk was the shortest of them. It was President Nelson’s welcome to conference. He said, “I invite you to listen for three things during this conference: pure truth, the pure doctrine of Christ, and pure revelation.” Where is the math in that? Again President Nelson, “Contrary to the doubts of some, there really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth—eternal truth.” Do you hear the math now?
In electrical engineering we often use tools called “truth tables” and “statistical analysis”. In the last quote above both are referred to. A truth table is a list of several independent variables, typically discreet variables such as true/false, on/off, 1/0, yes/no, +5V/-5V, etc. When each input variable is “true” or its equivalent, then the output (dependent variable) is also true. A discreet variable has a limited number of potential values. In the case of electrical truth tables each discreet variable is limited to two states. President Nelson noted two specific examples, right/wrong, truth/error. The idea of error is implied since if there is absolute truth, then anything else is not. Here is an example of a gospel version of an electrical truth table. If the Book of Mormon is true scripture then Joseph Smith is a true prophet since God would not reveal scripture to a false prophet. If both the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church since a true prophet would not be the means to establish a false church. You see how that logic form works?
Then what about statistical analysis? Where was that in the talk? Well, that comes from another form of dependent variable. Instead of discreet variables that have a limited number of values, continuous variables have an infinite number of values between two extremes. Each extreme is referred to as an absolute. There’s that word President Nelson used. The example I used speaking in church was the amount of food I planned on eating at Thanksgiving. One absolute could be zero. I might choose to eat nothing. Well that certainly wasn’t going to happen. The other absolute would be the maximum capacity of my old-man stomach. Between these two absolutes is an infinite quantity of potential food amounts I could consume. I’ll get to where this part fits the gospel in a minute.
I’ve heard people say that Heaven is like the top of a mountain. Any path to the top is ok so long as the goal is the same. I remember many years ago when Adam Savage, one of the hosts on the TV show Myth Busters often wore a shirt that said, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” In the field of Philosophy of Science a prominent practitioner named Thomas Kuhn coined the idea of scientific paradigms. To Kuhn our current paradigm explaining what we see in nature stands so long as it seems to answer our questions. Eventually we raise questions our current paradigm does not explain. Then, some smart person comes up with another paradigm that does explain our questions and that becomes our new truth until we find more questions the new paradigm does not explain. Each change in paradigm is called a scientific revolution or a paradigm shift. For Kuhn, then, we are not considering truth, or even if the new paradigm brings us closer to truth; only that it seems to answer the questions we have today. A paradigm is a story we tell ourselves, an agreed upon context.
Are we not blessed with the combination God has given us, the combination of the scriptures and the Holy Ghost? One could argue the scriptures are simply a form of paradigm, but that idea leaves out direct revelation through the Holy Ghost that testifies of truth to each of us in the language God knows we will understand.
So what do the scriptures tell us about truth? Here are a few samples:
Many truths or one truth? Many paths or one path? May ways or one way? Truth, the path, is measured as a discreet variable. There is only one absolute truth, one path. Our alignment (our variableness) with that discreet truth is continuous. We may wander in the space between true and false. Our understanding of truth could be represented as a percent of the whole. Do we have all truth today? No. “We believe all God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” All the gospel we have received is true so the truth of the gospel is 100%. Our understanding individually is between 0% and 100%, and the total truth received through the gospel so far is also between 0% and 100%.
In Star Wars, one of the famous sayings of Yoda was, “do or do not, there is no try.” Does that jive with the scriptures? Such a phrase seems like an attempt to change our performance or understanding from a continuous variable to a discreet variable. In other words, if we fall short by even a little, it is the same as if we have failed completely. Such a philosophy is tempting, but in the world of discreet variables, it is false because it leaves out repentance and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Do we fail to make 100%? Yes, all the time. What are we to do then in gospel terms? When we repent, the grace of Savior moves us from the continuous variable space between truth and error to the discreet of absolute truth. The atonement makes us holy. To be made holy means to be made whole, or complete, or sacred. In every case we fall short on our own, but are made whole through the power that comes from His sacrifice. As with Elder Gilbert’s talk, the trajectory or slope matters, not a particular position along the slope. So using Yoda’s vernacular, alone we ‘do not’. Only with the Savior can we ‘do’.
Pres Nelson stresses this paradigmatic shift from Yoda’s absolutes of self pass/fail to the gospel’s absolutes of fail alone, pass with the Savior. In his talk he said, “There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul.”
So there you have it. Math in what seemed initially to me as a simple welcome-to-conference talk of only about five minutes. As I thought about it, the talk for me had much more depth than it at first appeared.
The talk I referred to in my talk was the shortest of them. It was President Nelson’s welcome to conference. He said, “I invite you to listen for three things during this conference: pure truth, the pure doctrine of Christ, and pure revelation.” Where is the math in that? Again President Nelson, “Contrary to the doubts of some, there really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth—eternal truth.” Do you hear the math now?
In electrical engineering we often use tools called “truth tables” and “statistical analysis”. In the last quote above both are referred to. A truth table is a list of several independent variables, typically discreet variables such as true/false, on/off, 1/0, yes/no, +5V/-5V, etc. When each input variable is “true” or its equivalent, then the output (dependent variable) is also true. A discreet variable has a limited number of potential values. In the case of electrical truth tables each discreet variable is limited to two states. President Nelson noted two specific examples, right/wrong, truth/error. The idea of error is implied since if there is absolute truth, then anything else is not. Here is an example of a gospel version of an electrical truth table. If the Book of Mormon is true scripture then Joseph Smith is a true prophet since God would not reveal scripture to a false prophet. If both the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church since a true prophet would not be the means to establish a false church. You see how that logic form works?
Then what about statistical analysis? Where was that in the talk? Well, that comes from another form of dependent variable. Instead of discreet variables that have a limited number of values, continuous variables have an infinite number of values between two extremes. Each extreme is referred to as an absolute. There’s that word President Nelson used. The example I used speaking in church was the amount of food I planned on eating at Thanksgiving. One absolute could be zero. I might choose to eat nothing. Well that certainly wasn’t going to happen. The other absolute would be the maximum capacity of my old-man stomach. Between these two absolutes is an infinite quantity of potential food amounts I could consume. I’ll get to where this part fits the gospel in a minute.
I’ve heard people say that Heaven is like the top of a mountain. Any path to the top is ok so long as the goal is the same. I remember many years ago when Adam Savage, one of the hosts on the TV show Myth Busters often wore a shirt that said, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” In the field of Philosophy of Science a prominent practitioner named Thomas Kuhn coined the idea of scientific paradigms. To Kuhn our current paradigm explaining what we see in nature stands so long as it seems to answer our questions. Eventually we raise questions our current paradigm does not explain. Then, some smart person comes up with another paradigm that does explain our questions and that becomes our new truth until we find more questions the new paradigm does not explain. Each change in paradigm is called a scientific revolution or a paradigm shift. For Kuhn, then, we are not considering truth, or even if the new paradigm brings us closer to truth; only that it seems to answer the questions we have today. A paradigm is a story we tell ourselves, an agreed upon context.
Are we not blessed with the combination God has given us, the combination of the scriptures and the Holy Ghost? One could argue the scriptures are simply a form of paradigm, but that idea leaves out direct revelation through the Holy Ghost that testifies of truth to each of us in the language God knows we will understand.
So what do the scriptures tell us about truth? Here are a few samples:
- “Straight is the gate and narrow the way”
- “That no man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word”
- “I am the way, the truth, and the light”
Many truths or one truth? Many paths or one path? May ways or one way? Truth, the path, is measured as a discreet variable. There is only one absolute truth, one path. Our alignment (our variableness) with that discreet truth is continuous. We may wander in the space between true and false. Our understanding of truth could be represented as a percent of the whole. Do we have all truth today? No. “We believe all God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” All the gospel we have received is true so the truth of the gospel is 100%. Our understanding individually is between 0% and 100%, and the total truth received through the gospel so far is also between 0% and 100%.
In Star Wars, one of the famous sayings of Yoda was, “do or do not, there is no try.” Does that jive with the scriptures? Such a phrase seems like an attempt to change our performance or understanding from a continuous variable to a discreet variable. In other words, if we fall short by even a little, it is the same as if we have failed completely. Such a philosophy is tempting, but in the world of discreet variables, it is false because it leaves out repentance and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Do we fail to make 100%? Yes, all the time. What are we to do then in gospel terms? When we repent, the grace of Savior moves us from the continuous variable space between truth and error to the discreet of absolute truth. The atonement makes us holy. To be made holy means to be made whole, or complete, or sacred. In every case we fall short on our own, but are made whole through the power that comes from His sacrifice. As with Elder Gilbert’s talk, the trajectory or slope matters, not a particular position along the slope. So using Yoda’s vernacular, alone we ‘do not’. Only with the Savior can we ‘do’.
Pres Nelson stresses this paradigmatic shift from Yoda’s absolutes of self pass/fail to the gospel’s absolutes of fail alone, pass with the Savior. In his talk he said, “There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul.”
So there you have it. Math in what seemed initially to me as a simple welcome-to-conference talk of only about five minutes. As I thought about it, the talk for me had much more depth than it at first appeared.
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